Music Therapy For Addiction Treatment

Music-Therapy-for-Drug-Addiction

You know that jolt of happiness you can get by hearing your favorite song on the radio? That feeling is the basis for music therapy. Music can have a very profound impact on your mood, well-being, and life in general. It allows you to express emotions you might not otherwise be able to reach or accurately convey. Music therapy involves using melodies of various sorts to help you solve your problems—emotional, physical, or cognitive. According to the Saint Jude program, music therapy allows individuals struggling with substance abuse to self reflect and self assess.

How Does It Work?

Music as a valid form of therapy has been around since the early 1800s, when medical students Edwin Atlee and Samuel Mathews both published papers referencing their success at using music to treat patients. Both World Wars saw musicians touring army hospitals, playing for the wounded to raise their spirits and promote healing. Today’s music therapies expand from this base.

In the world of addiction, music therapy is used as a tool, not as a cure itself. When used with other treatments, it can be very effective.

Go back to that song on the radio, and how it affected you. Music is a very emotional thing, and as such, can do a lot of good. It helps purge negative emotions, manages stress, and alleviates boredom. It can also get a person to feel less lonely, increase concentration, introduce meditation, and ease the symptoms of depression. Some addicts find it very difficult to explain the underlying causes of their problems, the “why” of how drugs or alcohol came into their life. In many cases, music has proved an effective way to communicate those underlying issues.

How Is It Used?

The Saint Jude program lists various ways music can be incorporated into addiction treatment, including drum circles, recording a personalized relaxation CD, discussing lyrics and how they relate to substance abuse problems, creative improvisation on various instruments, making compositions, and song-building.

Of these, drumming is the most often utilized because it is a social activity, requiring multiple people to work together to create a harmony. Drum circles create a sense of connection between yourself and your fellow drummers, and can also create a natural altered state of consciousness, which appeals to recovering addicts. It’s often used in meditative therapies, as well.

How Alternative Is Music Therapy?

Not very! That song on the radio doesn’t elicit an emotional response in just you, after all. Music therapy and other alternative treatment methods are continuing to grow in popularity and become more accepted as a traditional approach to rehabilitation. They’re well thought of in the treatment world, and used in programs all over, often with so-called “traditional” treatments. Music therapy is considered an action-based therapy, like gardening or working with animals or art. These types of therapies are all designed to help you get outside yourself and your addictions through the process of nurturing, creating, and working with others.

Let Us Help You Find The Music

Contact us today at DrugRehab.org to learn the sweet sounds of recovery.If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction and is looking for help, contact us. We can guide you to a facility that includes music therapy, or other treatment methods that will best suit your needs. Contact us today at DrugRehab.org to learn the sweet sounds of recovery.

Addiction And The Financial Struggle

Addiction And The Financial StruggleDoes drug addiction affect people of a higher income more than individuals with a lower income? Before we delve into this question I’m going to use my personal experience of someone who has struggled with addiction, and has been through treatment.

In order to really look at this from every angle, we’re going to touch on 3 points of interest:

1.) Drugs cost money. Many of them can be very expensive for everyday use.

2.) People who have struggled with drugs or alcohol are generally younger.

3.) People who successfully recover from drug addiction enter treatment. Some of these centers offer free rehabilitation and others are private pay or insurance based.

These three issues factor into whether or not addiction affects people of a lower economic class, or an individual who is better off financially.

Drugs Aren’t Cheap

The first and probably most important factor to look at regarding whether or not drug abuse is more susceptible to a higher income bracket or lower income bracket is that drugs cost money. Some drugs cost more than others, and some drugs are a reduced version of pure drug to make it more accessible and cheaper.

For instance, powdered cocaine is considered an upper class, expensive drug, while crack cocaine is considered a cheap form of cocaine, used by people who can’t afford pure cocaine and want a quick, intense high. In most inner cities you can pull up on any corner and purchase crack, but cocaine, not so much.

Though, people of all economic statuses use crack, I know people whom I met in rehab, who owned large companies and made millions of dollars and lost everything because of an addiction to crack. A few of these people literally smoked houses, cars, jewelry and a million dollar a year salary…….GONE! There is nothing left except their parents love and bank account paying for them to go to a nice drug rehab in California.

Regarding this example of drugs costing money, I have to go with the person that has more money, can buy all the drugs he or she needs and doesn’t have financial loss as a means to stopping them from obtaining and using these drugs. That’s a very dangerous recipe.

Most People First Experiment In Their Teens

Teen Drug UseThe second factor is most individuals abusing drugs or alcohol are younger. The average age the individual started to use drugs such as marijuana is 14. Of course, real drug addicts who are struggling generally are addicted to harder drugs like heroin, cocaine, prescription drugs, and alcohol. Regarding addiction and younger people, financial means are not as accessible to a younger individual as someone who is older with more money. So with a younger population abusing alcohol and drugs, the majority of people here would not have the financial means to consider them wealthy.

Private Pay Treatment And Free Rehabilitation

The third and final factor to consider regarding addiction and the individuals financial status is treatment. Most people who are able to overcome their addiction to drugs and alcohol have attended a drug or alcohol rehab program. Unfortunately most of the free and or government funded programs do not offer a high success rate.

Addicted individuals that attend privately funded treatment centers have a much better chance of quitting. This leaves the people who can’t afford rehab attending free programs which means that the vast majority of people who can’t pay for drug treatment, stay addicted and never overcome it.

Contact us today to learn about which treatment is right for you.Looking at this information, people that have financial means can buy more drugs but also have better solutions to addiction like effective treatment facilities. Non 12 step and holistic based rehabilitation programs for addiction provide the highest success rate, and are also usually some of the most expensive programs out there.

At DrugRehab.org, our goal is to help everyone who is struggling with drug or alcohol addiction. Contact us today to learn about which treatment is right for you.